What Does 1 Chronicles 13:6 Mean?
And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, Kirjathjearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, the LORD who settles between the cherubim, whose name is called on it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.THE KEY
The people are carrying more than an ark: the name, the nature, of the One enthroned between the cherubim is called upon it.
THE MEANING
You encounter divine presence here at the center of a people’s shared movement: David and all Israel go up to bring the ark up. The LORD dwells between the cherubim, and his name is called upon the ark, binding the nature of the One named to what the people carry. The verse joins movement, community, and invoked identity in one act.
THE ROOT
נִקְרָא
niqraʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
qaraʾ
To call, proclaim, summon, or name.
The word translated “called” comes from קָרָא (qaraʾ, to call or proclaim), an act of voicing or invoking, not merely attaching a label. Paired with שֵׁם (shem, name and nature), it presents the ark as bearing the invoked identity of the One who dwells between the cherubim.
ALSO GROWS
qeriʾah: Reading or reciting aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The same root links naming with a voiced act: the name upon the ark is spoken, not merely displayed.
miqra: A gathering called together, or a public reading.
מִקְרָא
The root can summon a gathering as well as name something, echoing the shared movement of all Israel.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved; a beloved one or kinsman.
David’s name carries דוד (dod, beloved), giving the leader a relational nature in the middle of this scene. The movement immediately widens beyond him: the beloved goes up with all Israel.
ALSO GROWS
dod: A beloved one or close relative.
דּוֹד
This is the root carried in David’s name, making the name itself part of the scene’s meaning.
dodi: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
The possessive form makes the root’s relational sense explicit; David’s name carries that same beloved nature.
וַיַּעַל
vayyaʿal
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿalah
To ascend or go up; in a causative form, to raise or bring up.
“went up / bring up” in this verse is vayyaʿal. Both “went up” and “bring up” draw on עלה (ʿalah, to ascend or raise), so the people’s ascent and the ark’s being brought up are one repeated movement. The carrying of the ark is part of the people’s own rising, not a detached errand.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaliyyah: An ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
It names the upward movement shared by David, Israel, and the ark in this verse.
ʿolah: An offering that rises in smoke.
עֹלָה
Its name carries the same rising root, extending the verse’s upward movement into the language of offering.
THE PATTERN
The divine name marks the place or people bearing it as identified with God’s presence.
And there I meet with you, and I speak with you from above the covering, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the witness, all that I command you to the children of Israel.That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.So that the remnant of humankind might seek out the LORD, and all the nations, upon whom my nature is called, says the LORD, who makes all these things.THE THREAD
And to Seth, to him also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call out in the nature of the LORD.Both verses use קָרָא (qaraʾ, to call or proclaim) with שֵׁם (shem, name and nature). Genesis shows people calling upon the LORD’s name; here, the LORD’s name is called upon the ark, marking the nature invoked over it.
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